Eschewing the tendency to read only authors whose worldviews he shared, Burns often delved into works that approached their subject from opposing perspectives. That was especially the case with economics, a field of human behavior that particularly interested Burns.

Burns owned a copy of Ben Fowkes and David Fernbach’s 1976 translation of Karl Marx’s seminal critique of the political economy of capitalism, Das Kapital, originally published in 1867. He also owned and read several analyses of socialism by Austrian-born economist Ludwig von Mises. After emigrating to the United States in 1940, von Mises strongly influenced the growth of the libertarian movement. He praised the work of philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand. She respected his, yet disputed his belief in the moral value of collective, as opposed to individual, rights.

For economic history, Burns preferred Paul Johnson. Educated at the Jesuit independent school Stonyhurst College and Magdalen College, Oxford, Johnson gained attention as a journalist and later editor for the New Statesman, a leading progressive political and cultural magazine in the United Kingdom. By the 1970s, as Britain’s economy faltered, Johnson’s views shifted to the right, becoming increasingly critical of labor unions and other forms of socialism. He supported Margaret Thatcher in her rise to Prime Minister and became one of her closest advisers. As a conservative Catholic, Johnson has defended clerical celibacy, yet is not opposed to the ordination of women.

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